It is very important that you document every social media network.  You will find that this documentation will become extremely valuable — especially within your early days of integration.  An efficient social media optimizer is like a highly regarded captain who can navigate the seas because he has memorized or read his maps regularly.  To become a captain, you first have to learn your maps — your documentation will guide your way.

3.  LISTEN BEFORE YOU SPEAK to your customers or potential customers conversations in the social media realm.  When you first begin your social media campaign, you should realize that your social media brand is a service representing your company.  Your new social media service is now in BETA and needs to be tested before you start marketing it.

You want your brand to make a positive first impression right?  Well, you first need to make sure that you are prepared and ready for the task of engaging effectively.  There are many tools available for managing multiple social media outlets within one platform and I suggest that you start utilizing these tools to listen before you engage.  I have listed some great tools below, but please be aware that this is a small list and if these do not interest you, simply search for tools that will best utilize your campaigns:

• http://www.sociafyq.com/ -  Allows you to customize track up to 15 accounts for free
• http://www.tweetdeck.com/ – Allows you to customize track and engage with Twitter, Facebook, Myspace and LinkedIn
• http://getsatisfaction.com/ – Allows you to build your own online community
• http://Google.com/alerts/ – Allows you to setup an account with Google that will actively search Google search engines everyday for keywords or keyword phrases of your choice
• http://ping.fm/ – Allows streamlined engagement with over 40 social media networks

4.  OPTIMIZE YOUR SITE for social media interaction with remarkable content and plenty of social media options.  Now that you have your social media networks defined, you want to make sure that your site is prepared to actively engage with them.  You need to make your website very easy for a customer to share within their particular community – and that they are compelled to do so.  You should have a page or category dedicated to your social media community that enables a user to share and engage with you and that content or product they just bought or really like.  You need to always be cognizant of the fact that the customers you are either engaging with or trying to engage with are people.  You need to treat them like people, like an actual customer who just walked into your store, not like a faceless username whom you could careless about.   To see a shining example of an optimized e-commerce consumer facing website and how to model your store after it, read my article “Remarkable Content and E-Commerce – The Moosejaw Way”

5.  ENGAGE YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA campaign with the communities and the people within.  At this point you should have accomplished the following:

• Created a detailed list of your social media sites
• Actively mapped, monitored and quantified multiple social media site searches for your company name, brand, industry, products, keywords and competitors
• Collected, understand and operate your social media tools effectively
• Optimized your consumer facing e-commerce store with remarkable content and made it social media accessible.

You are now ready to engage with the masses.  Good luck and stay positive.  As Brian Halligan, CEO and Founder of Hubspot and author of Inbound Marketing:  Get Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs once said, “Learning inbound marketing is like learning how to play the guitar. …  You first have to learn the chords to get started.” Well said Mr. Halligan.

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The Bottom line is this, if you are even slightly interested in succeeding in social media marketing (and you must be if you are here), I recommend that you first buy Brian Solis’s latest book, Engage, and then the Poster Version of the conversation prism today.  Much of what I have learned and write about comes straight from the mouths of giants that have come before me.  Brian Solis and Brian Halligan are just two of the social media giants that I am learning from, and you would be doing yourself a great favor by consuming information directly from them.  See where to follow them on my list of Social Media Giants.